Zinczencko complains that unlike many other hazardous items, fast food does not come with warnings on how terrible the food is for one’s health and its future effects. He emphasizes that even if the customers were able to obtain the nutritional facts, they are not palpable, but rather obscure. He points out that the fast-food companies make the nutrition labels vague and misleading; they calculate the calories for every separate part of the meal, and they make it so the consumer must pay attention to serving size as well. He observes that the fast-food industry can get away with confusing labels because there are not any Food and Drug Administration labeling requisites (Word Smart, p. 220) covering fast food. Zinczenko complains that there is not any sort of nutritional labeling on the menus at fast-food restaurants. Now, nine years later, there are some changes, but his point is still valid. McDonald’s menu now states the calories of each meal, but as Zinczenko points out, it is very difficult to
As Americans, we enjoy big juicy burgers and greasy bacon, but most of us do not know how many calories we are actually putting into our body when going out for a typical night out. The University of Toronto did some research and discovered the average night out had 1,128 calories per meal. That’s about 56 percent of the average daily diet” (Neporent). Nutrition labeling will become required in December 2016 which means all chains who have 20 or more locations will have to publish all calorie requirements. There are three requirements for a food establishment to follow. The first requirement is to make calorie information clear and visible on menu and menu boards. The labeling of
Lang, Greenwald, Bradley, Hamm, 1993; P. Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1997). The general goal of appetitive motivational activation is information intake in the pursuit of opportunities for biological success (A. Lang, 2006). Thus, it comes as no surprise that food stimuli are detected and recognized faster during visual search tasks, remembered better, and produce stronger hedonic reactions (Harrar, Toepel, Murray, & Spence, 2011; Morris & Dolan, 2001; Stoeckel, Cox, Cook, & Weller, 2007). However, food of different types may not always create uniform increases in appetitive response and activation. Studies have shown that appetitive responses are modulated by personality characteristics, behavioral traits, physiological traits, nutritional content, and advertising efforts (Bailey, 2015; Harris, Bargh, & Brownell, 2009; Lawrence, Hinton, Parkinson, & Lawrence, 2012; Marchiori, Corneille, & Klein, 2012; Martin, Coulon, Markward, Greenway, & Anton, 2009; van Strien, Herman, Anschutz, 2012).
Which gives fast food restaurants less worry about their consumer’s health. However, Zinczenko also affirms the fact that “Some fast-food purveyors will provide calorie information on request out of that would be hard to find” (Zinczenko 464). He explains that for obesity rates to drop, people must be informed with the necessary information on what they are going to eat at fast food restaurants. With the knowledge of how healthy their food is and how many calories they are going to be consuming, Americans can better orchestrate a healthier diet plan and possibly eat less when they decide to dine at fast food restaurants.
The food industry owes to its consumers a clear nutritional label. The Fast food restaurants know how to brainwash the customer well. They would sell salads, but they do not tell you that you can be eating up to 1,040 calories in that salad because according to the article "Don't blame the eater" by David Zinczenko. He explains the following "For example, one company's Web site lists its chicken salad as containing 150 calories; the almonds and noodles, that come with it (an additional 190 calories) are listed separately. Add a serving of the 280-calorie dressing, and you've got a healthy lunch alternative that
Regarding the possibility of being a short-sighted policy, the move is useless as it is only symbolic. There have been many discussions whether or not unhealthy fast foods carry labels warning of their calorie content. McDonald’s, one of the world’s largest fast food restaurants, has implemented menu labelling to inform customers about menu items since 2012 in the United States, showing the amount of calories they put in their foods (Strom, 2012).
In Milbank Quarterly the writers J.F. Sallis and K. Glanz in 2009 said, “The amount of food consumed outside of households have increased in America.” The massive reliability of consuming in places outside of one’s home have had a negative effect on American’s diet, since they consume more calories and fat causing a lack in the consumption of fruits, vegetables and fiber. To eliminate or help the issue, the health of children should be taken under consideration in restaurants. The kids’ menu should have choices based on less sugar and low calories. The customer base within the restaurant will not be trashed considering most parents want their child to eat healthy. According to Whiteman, 2013, “’Health options’ online and calorie listings are believed to potentially tackle obesity more effectively. Studies have shown that the method mentioned has been more efficient than just listing the details on the menus of restaurants because people more than likely need to plan their diet before entering a
The same research also discovered that these customers, on average, consume 400 calories fewer than they did without their meal's nutritional information. That means that out of the 33% of Americans that consume their calories away from home, 8% of those people will, on average, consume 400 calories less than what they did before. In other words, 8% of Americans will start to live a healthier lifestyle. It may not be what the number we hoped for, but it's a start. There may be one countermeasure to this otherwise incredible idea. Food labeling menu choices could become a nuisance to restaurants. Most of the time, restaurants use ingredients that have a high fat content in their recipes. If food labeling were to become a law, menu choices would have to be replaced with healthier options. That would take time and possibly decrease a restaurant's business. However, this would only be a temporary. As soon as restaurants start serving healthier options, business would boom, and people will become healthier. The governments goal would be
The FDA tried to help consumers make healthy choice when consume foods by provide and encourage accurate label, whether for the nutrition facts label, menu label and the sodium level label that said about a particular product. The nutrition fact label improved on the format and content that display on the package such as highlight the calories and serving information concise that will reflect the portion serving per person and add a caterigo of “Added Sugars, Vitamin D and potassium” for helping people who under the calorie limitation to know so they are not consuming more than it should. Also, FDA reinforces restaurant to make the menu label for consumers that eat out so consumer aquice the nutrition information such as calorie count for food,
Every year, more than 100,000 people die due to health problems such as diabetes, strokes, and/or heart disease caused by leftover calories that have been transmuted into fat. If people were aware of the number of calories that were in their food, I’m sure they would reconsider their options. I strongly recommend placing labels on serving meals at restaurants. Once in a while, my family and I would drive out to eat at a fancy restaurant; specifically Westin. It provided us with time to bond, laugh, and enjoy each other’s company. Over time, it became a Saturday thing for us. During this period, I started gaining weight dramatically, which was undesirable. This was very unjustifiable for an individual. Due to this event, I started to cut back on breakfast and unhealthy snacks. When that didn’t work, I stopped going to family dinners. It was only then, my weight began to diminish. If only I knew what exactly was in my T-Bone then, I would have eaten something much healthier. Calorie labeling on
It argues that nutrition labeling is incredibly useful because it explains exactly what a consumer will take in if they consume a particular product. However, they found that particular subgroups, such as children, adolescents, and the obese are less likely to actually read the nutrition contents and thus would be less likely to actually benefit from the
Trapped in the corner of choosing the cafe or McDonald’s most turn to the quick fix of fast food restaurant’s. According to research Globally, nationally, and across college campuses, large portion sizes and fast foods are spreading the obesity epidemic (Kelly, Evelyn B). As both variables have been implicated in campus-wide as well as country-wide studies, effective intervention methods could include establishing regulations on portions served at fast food restaurants, and labeling food trays at buffet-style cafeterias with suggested portion size information. This could help many college students take inventory of their eating
According to research done by Mary Gerend, calorie labels on food have positive implications on human health. When calorie labels were present, individuals choose lower priced meals (Gerend 2). Overall, this would suggest that when calorie labels are present, consumers pay attention to them and are more conscious about what type of food they eat and how much of it they eat.
Studies have shown that undergraduate and graduate who read food labels are feasible to have a healthier diet, than those who don’t read food labels (Cha et al., 2014). The population that we’re trying to influence are students who don’t know the proper steps to take to live a healthy lifestyle. This is the population to target to get them to start living a healthy
There are many things that are confusing and overwhelming when it comes to making nutritious choices. One product will have a high content of something good and another will have low content in something bad. When it is time to consider what we put in our bodies we have ample opportunity to weight the pros and cons of various products. According to the Nielsen Global Survey in 2011 sixty percent of the population doesn’t not understand the mandatory nutritional code in order to properly identify the ingredients they are considering ingesting. Alarmingly, this statistic is that the nutrition label and the ingredients list are the only true allies a consumer has when determining what we should be eating. Only they tell the full story of what the food we are consuming is comprised of. For this assignment I was asked to first select two pairs of similar food products from the supermarket and then secondly compare them, while critically evaluating both their food labels and ingredients. I chose to compare coconut milk against 2% dairy milk and rolled oats versus steel cut oats. I am going to address the following comparisons in the body of my essay: the nutrition facts table, serving sizes, price, ingredients, product claims, percentage of daily value (%DV), whether they are part of a healthy eating plan, and lastly whether their labeling is clear and concise. On the war against obesity and disease caused by diet, food labels and ingredient lists are the consumers’